How Star Catcher’s In-Space Power Grid Could Eliminate Satellite Power Constraints

So Andrew, to start, can you give our audience a brief introduction to StarCatcher, when the company was founded, the problem you're trying to solve, and the type of technology you are developing for the space industry?

Absolutely.

StarCatcher was founded in 2024, uh, with the vision of making it as easy to operate in space as it is to operate on the planet.

Uh, and our belief is that core to making that vision a reality is changing the way that we do power distribution in space.

Uh, that today, um, we're really in the kind of pre-industrial, uh, revolution in, in space.

You know, where, where, you know, people used to all have their own water wheels to power their factories, uh, and then once we started having a power grid, um, we had this amazing economic boom because we could... because folks were no longer concerned about how much energy they could generate locally.

They could just tap into utilities, into resources to drive, uh, their factories, to drive what they needed to do.

Uh, and we think that that's what we need in space.

That today, every satellite basically goes on a camping trip to space, has their own little solar arrays.

When they see the sun, they can charge up.

When they can't see the sun, which is 30 to 50% of the time in low Earth orbit, uh, which is where the vast majority of satellites are, they, uh, they just have to live off of batteries, and this is incredibly constraining.

This is, this is the equivalent to, you know, maybe your first, your first apartment, uh, after being out of your own, out on your own, or at least for me, where, uh, you know, where I couldn't run my microwave and my, my oven at the same time, uh, because it would pop the circuit because we didn't have enough power availability.

That's, that's how satellites operate.

They operate with less than 100% uptime.

They're solely reliant on the sun.

Uh, and so what we're building at StarCatcher is a power grid for space where we're gonna field a constellation of satellites that gather energy from the sun and then transmit it in wavelengths of light that solar arrays are highly efficient at converting into power.

And we're gonna beam power to our client satellites' existing solar arrays to give them more power, higher concentrations of power, and power in eclipse, so they no longer have to make a compromise in between capability and uptime.

They no longer have to make a compromise between maneuvering and sensing.

Um, and there's an additional layer of resilience for our national security, uh, uh, customers and, and you know, in that way, shift us from a world of power budgets to a world of power abundance.

Right.

It certainly is a unique, uh, you know, challenge and, and technology you're developing there.

And as a follow-up question for you, Andrew, you know, Star- StarCatcher on its website describes its network as an in-space power grid, as you mentioned, that uses optical power beaming, um, to, to deliver concentrated solar energy on demand to satellites already in orbit.

For our listeners who may be new to that concept, can you walk us through the type of spacecraft you're actually developing to enable this? I mean, what type of onboard systems or other instruments are needed to make wireless power transmission a reality in space?

Absolutely.

Absolutely.